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North Miami Beach’s Harvard House Apartments Re-Opens Following Major Renovation

MIAMI, FL – March 20, 2013 – In the latest example of federal stimulus dollars being put to work in Miami-Dade County, nonprofit affordable housing developers Carrfour Supportive Housing and the National Housing Trust (NHT) have partnered to transform a formerly distressed North Miami Beach apartment complex into a newly-redeveloped affordable housing community, providing homes for approximately 140 low-income residents. The $8 million redevelopment of Harvard House Apartments was made possible through support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which aims to revitalize neighborhoods that have been negatively impacted by properties that were foreclosed upon or abandoned as a result of the recession.

Carrfour and NHT celebrated the grand “re-opening” of Harvard House during a special reception and ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 19, 2013, joined by several elected and government officials, including NSP Team Leader John Laswick of the U.S. HUD Office in Washington, City of North Miami Beach Mayor George Vallejo, and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Sally A. Heyman.

“Harvard House is a perfect example of how the federal government’s NSP program is breathing new life into local communities,” said Stephanie Berman, president of Carrfour Supportive Housing. “Beyond providing much-needed housing for families and individuals in need, we rescued an asset from distress, thus injecting new life into a deteriorating neighborhood. We are not only rebuilding apartments, we are rebuilding an entire community.”

Harvard House, located at 2020 NE 169th Street in North Miami Beach, consists of 56 newly-renovated affordable housing units designated for families earning at or below 50% of the area’s median income – marking the first of three NSP2-funded redevelopment projects undertaken by Carrfour in Miami.

HUD’s NSP2 initiative – part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – granted nearly $2 billion to states, local governments, nonprofits and public and/or private nonprofit entities on a competitive basis, with the purpose of rehabilitating distressed properties. Carrfour was part of the Miami-Dade County NSP consortium that was granted $89 million in funding through the program. All told, HUD has allocated $6.82 billion to NSP1, NSP2 and NSP3 grantees across the country.

Carrfour has spent $17 million in federally-granted NSP2 funds on the acquisition, renovation and redevelopment of three separate formerly-distressed Miami-Dade properties. The organization’s remaining two projects – Tequesta Knoll and Hampton Village – are set to deliver by 2014, with all three newly-converted affordable housing communities providing homes for nearly 800 low-income men, women and children in the area.